Back Day!
Happy Friday everyone!
So today I weighed myself and I seem to be stuck at 249lbs for a little bit now. It makes me feel like the hard work I’m putting in isn’t working and makes me feel discouraged. But then I look in the mirror and really want to change. So I’m my own motivation.
You have to remember, and I tell myself this everyday day, you don’t get “fit” or lose weight over night.
You and I definitely didn’t get fat in one night so don’t except change over night. Change happens with time and work.
So please, if you think your effort is for naught, I beg you to reconsider. Keep putting in the hard work, I promise there is light at the end of the tunnel.
So for today’s workout it was back day. I work a lot on my lower back aka deadlifts, good mornings, etc. But today I still did deadlifts but put more of an emphasis on my upper and middle back.
Today’s routine:
Deadlifts-40 reps.
With dealifts today, I started with 45lb plates on each side. Did 2 sets of 10. Upped the weight with 25lb plates and did 10 reps on my 3rd set. And finishes with 10 reps of 45lb plates again. This gave me a great lower back workout.
Barbell rows upper and lower-60 reps.
So with these. Ya you alternate your hand position. First 10 reps are aimed at your upper back and next 10 are for your middle back. Alternate between 20 reps for 3 sets.
Then we moved on to lower cable rows-30 reps.
With this one you get the T extension and just row hitting your lower back.
Upper cable rows-40 reps.
You’ll use the rope extension for this one. And you’ll row higher and squeeze your back to get that upper.
Cable cross-40
So like the name says, you’ll get two cables, grap the tip (haha just the tip) and you’ll cross and squeeze your back.
Assisted pull ups-20
I’ve never been able to do a pull-up my whole life. So one of my goals is to do a pull up by the end of the year. These help me so much improve my back strength and grip strength to hang on.
I would have loved to have taken pictures or a video to show you how all is done, but my gym buddy, aka my fiancé, is sick. So I will work on pics/video!
(Picture from google)
I’m currently at 249. Not bad because when I started I was at 260. But still not where I want to be. But I will keep working hard.
No Excuses.
Come join our group 100 reps! for motivation and help!!
Another thing to consider is that some of your weight change will be from gaining muscle so you won't always see the scale going down. You're doing a damn good job of keeping yourself accountable and you shouldn't get discouraged ever when you're actively trying to better yourself. I know that's always easier said than done, though lol. Keep it up.
Thanks bro! I just have to keep reminding myself that lol.
Good luck with your goal of doing a full pullup @xxlobo21xx
I could offer some advice if you want, but I'd only do so at your request.
I've helped many people get their their first full pullup. I've been working in gyms for over 30 years and many people have had this goal. I believe everyone can do one with the correct approach to training.
I'd love to see you get there.
I will take all the advice I can get! Haha. Thank you.
Cool!
The first thing I'd suggest would be to find a progression that's a lot harder. 20 reps of any exercise will build strength but it will mostly build what's known as strength endurance and not raw strength. If you are having trouble with pullups you need all the raw strength you can get to get your first one, the strength endurance can come later.
Something you can do less than 6 reps of would be great and then do just 3 sets of 3-5 good reps. Australian pullups are good start for many people but if they are too hard you might have to find a way to assist them either with a training partner or bands ect.
Then when you can do 6 or more reps, move on to full pullup negatives and just do 3 sets of 2 or 3 reps, So jump to the top or use a chair or a box to get into the top position and fall down as slowly and controlled as you can, again just do two or three sets. After about two weeks of doing negatives start adding a few static holds during the negative rep, stop and hold near the top, about half way down and just before the bottom when your arms are still slightly flexed.
Still do a set or two of Australian pullups after you train the negatives, but don't feel the need to get a pump or burn, it's just not needed and counter productive.
This is fairly standard strength training advice. It's based on how our muscles produce energy. For a full power contraction our muscles use the phosphate energy pathways (ATP) and that system works for about 8 seconds before other energy systems (hydrogen buffering etc) come into play to keep our muscles going at a lower output rate.
That's why the reps need to be kept low and fairly heavy if you want to maximize strength gains - typically 6 or less for all out strength and around 80% or your maximum potential (1RM) give or take a few percent.
Our phosphate energy system works at it's peak for roughly 8 seconds and then rapidly tapers off in the first set and then in subsequent sets it stops a bit quicker, so maybe 7, 6, or 5 seconds depending on how tough the effort applied is.
So to get strong try take maximum advantage of the phosphate energy system and keep your reps low and your time under tension (TUT) for the set under 8 seconds.
Test yourself for a full pullup from time to time and you might find one day you can just do one.
This advice is not set in stone, so feel free to adapt it in any way you feel will give you the most benefit. You may want to skip the Australian pullups completely or even skip the negatives and just go straight to band assisted pullups that you can do with a bit of discomfort in the 3-6 rep range and that will get you there too.
Find the best progressions that you can adapt to to your training and keep the reps low and fairly tough and you will get there. I promise!
Thank you!!! I was so focused on trying to get reps in that I completely skipped over the actually raw strength. I will most definitely try out all of this. And you gotta love negative reps lol. I actually never even thought about applying negative reps for pull ups, I mostly used negative reps for arms. But thank you!! I will start applying this immediately!